Rockford Police Name Officer in Weekend Shooting

Rockford Police Name Officer in Weekend Shooting

<br><p>Rockford police release the name of the officer who shot and killed a suspect during a traffic stop over the weekend.</p><p>18 year police department veteran Amado Soria shot and killed Phillip Johnson on North Longwood.</p>

Rockford police release the name of the officer who shot and killed a suspect during a traffic stop over the weekend.

He's been taken off patrol and will be working on administrative duties until the results of the Winnebago County Integrity Task Force's report are known.

A process that could take some time.

As the Winnebago County Integrity Task Force continues its investigation into the shooting, Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey expressed his condolences.

"My sympathies go to the officers involved as well as the family members of the victim involved in the shooting, however this is something that is an active investigation."

The task force says the investigation remains in the early stages. And the Mayor says the officers won't have any problems from the police department.

"As this moves forward our department will cooperate fully with the investigation but we are at this point in time not actually a part of the investigation that is the purpose of the task force."

Task force chairman Jim Puckett says the State Police, Loves Park P.D., and Winnebago County Sheriff Investigators are running the case. And he says they're dotting every i and crossing every t.

"I understand that people want to know what happened, or where were are in the course of the investigation and we're trying the best that we can to release the information but we don't want to jeopardize what's going on."

The task force doesn't expect the investigation to take months. But the task force commander says the case will ultimately fall to the State's Attorney.

"As soon as the investigation is complete we will turn our report over to Mr. Bruscato from the state's attorneys office and he'll make the determination at that time."